Air France 447

Last week I awoke to the most disturbing of stories, that an Airbus A330 with 228 souls on board had disappeared somewhere over the Atlantic ocean. Having just broken out of a deep slumber, my first thought was that I was actually still dreaming. Having dismissed that theory after realizing that the information was emanating from my bedside clock radio, I then ascribed the narration to an author touting the merits of his/her new fiction novel. Sadly, neither prove to be the case. In fact, an Airbus A330 with 228 souls on board HAD disappeared somewhere between Brazil and France.

Instantly, I was overwhelmed by a tremendous sense of disbelief. I felt as though I had instantly been transported by to the early 1900s. Not that there is anything particularly significant about the early 1900s, but rather that somehow in my mind, had this event occurred in the early 1900s, it would have been more acceptable to me. At least, far more acceptable than it is for mid 2009.

With reality setting in, I naturally began to ask some questions.

#1. Given GPS technology, how can we not know where this aircraft is and/or was? For a mere $300, I can affix a Garmin GPS to my wrist and tell you where I am at any point so long as I have a clear look at any one of the numerous satellites that circle the world and contribute to our GPS mapping capabilities. One would have to figure that the technology available to a multi-million dollar jet being flown and serviced by a multi million (billion?) dollar company might have the same, or better, abilities.

#2. How is it that aircraft seats and life preservers are recovered in the area that the aircraft went down, but that they don’t belong to the A330. Keep in mind that this is 400 nautical miles north of Brazil, not a mere few miles offshore. Can I take this to mean that other aircraft are going down in this reason and are not accounted for? Or is there some aircraft wreckage yard somewhere in the world whereat citizens throw debris into the worlds’ ocean currents and watch them drift away – a modern version of the message in a bottle technique?

#3. There is chatter that the black box may never be recovered given that the ocean depths in the area in question are about 24,000 feet – a mere 5000 feet short of Mt. Everest’s height (~29,000 feet). So another question comes to mind. If black boxes are so vital to reconstructing accident events, and given the percent of the earth’s surface that is water, would it not be reasonable to make the black box buoyant? I fully recognize the durability requirements of the black box; after all, it is supposed to survive all manners of accident that involve tremendous G forces. I also recognize that there may be some value in having this box located in a region where it is well-integrated with other aircraft systems. HOWEVER, would it not be possible, at least on newer aircraft, to have it encased in enough buoyant material to offset its weight? And, furthermore, given its purpose, would there not be intrinsic value in having it easily break free from the rest of the wreckage at which time it would emit ELT like signals? In this way it could be more easily retrieved from the water’s surface, and would be easily located due to the signals it would emit.

#4. How is it that we hear absolutely nothing from the pilots before the aircraft went down? To me, this is SOOOOOOO bizarre. Theorists have suggested that the plane was travelling into an area with heavy storms. Fair enough, but suppose that this storm was intense enough to break up the aircraft. Even under those circumstances, the pilots would certainly have said something, at least a mayday call? To me, this simple piece of information alone suggests that whatever happened, it happened VERY suddenly!

At the end of the day, it will be some time, if ever, before we know all the details about the flight.

Appliance Makeover

Question -- what happened to clothes washing appliances?

For the vast majority of my life, washing machines and dryers were nearly perfectly square, squirreled away in the basement, and generally came in one of two colours: white or taupe.

In recent years, they have become sleek, colourful, and now adopt a position of prominence within the house. Consider for example that this is what greeted me upon entering a department store the othe day:

Was I in the appliance department? No. I was, in fact, in children's clothing and this applicance set was very prominently displayed at a T intersection I walked up to as soon as I came into the store. Look at these, I mean really look at them. The colour is fire engine red, the buttons are stereo like, and they come with drawers on the bottom.

So, my question is simply this. What in the H-E double hockey sticks happened to spur on this radical change in applicance appearences? More specifically, which designer woke up one morning and said "I'm going to make washing applicances sexy"? Something like that must surely of happened because clothes washing applicances could have evolved even moderately at any point in the last 20 years, but for some reason they didn't!

Anyhow, just another random thought to make up my two cents for the day

What do you “do”?

One thing I find odd about society is how much importance we place upon our professions. You see it all the time, people form virtually instantaneous opinions about others based on their profession. Even the greeting “what do you do”, how now devolved to the point that most people simply throw out their job as the answer to the query. Although most of us spend a lot of time at our places of employment, we truly are much more than the mere tasks we perform while at work.

For example, we adopt a variety of very significant roles as sons/daughters, fathers/mothers, brothers/sisters, mentors/mentorees, and volunteers. We also engage in a variety of extracurricular activities such as playing sports, joining service clubs, reading, taking/teaching classes, travelling, writing, drawing, singing, hiking, etc. etc.

I would argue that this collection of non-work activities are every bit as important, if not more so, than our chosen career when it comes to shaping the people we become. In fact, I would propose that many people seek stability in their employment, and as such, prefer not to face adversity and/or change. As such, for a significant portion of the population, I would venture to say that work becomes routine and rote. This is great from the point of view of knowing what to expect, being consistent, and getting a paycheque, but it does very little toward challenging you and seeing what kind of growth you are capable of. This kind of challenge is often delivered to us through our non-work activities. Perhaps a family member is truly taxing us, a course opens us up to a whole new world, or you develop a skill or ability you previously did not have. It is through these growth opportunities that we redefine who we are and become better people.
So, the next time someone asks you what you do, tell them you actually do a fair bit, and then proceed to tell them just what it is that keeps you busy all the time, not just during business hours.

Those are my two cents for the day!

Advent Calendar Payback – Hannah

This past week, I took another step toward being debt free from payouts for this year’s Advent Calendar Quiz. I met up with Hannah and she cashed in a drink – sadly, as I was in the midst of a month-long cleanse, no drinks for me L. Ah well, next time!

Only 30 more drinks and counting – now how to get to Calgary and Toronto to pay back the non-locals? The Stampede might work for Calgary ... and what for Toronto? Carabana? Only half a year left with only have a year left…..

Cleansing Time!

First day of the month and a blog entry already -- booyah!

The topic of today's blog is cleansing. I have a run later this month, and a trip on deck for mid next month. In prep for both, it is time to cleanse. In specific terms, I have thrown down the gauntlet. For this month, no:

Alcohol (yikes!).
Cola/soda of any kind.
Chips

Also, I will:

Run at least 40 kms.
Workout at least 10 times.